


Crashin'

by Stromesquad



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Pining, awesome lesbian OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-24 23:27:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13821702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stromesquad/pseuds/Stromesquad
Summary: A person in their live stream says, “Nick, just let him live his life,” when Nick chirps about being on the live stream too long. And God there has never been a statement Dylan gets more.





	Crashin'

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to FTC for grammar and spelling, Ang for comma edits, and Lotts and Ash for content, cheerleading, and hand holding. You guys rock. 
> 
>  
> 
> This entire fic happened because of something Lotts said during the Roadrunners livestream starring Dylan.

So here's the thing about Nick Merkley: he is hopelessly straight. It may or may not have been a terrible idea to live with him knowing this, but Dylan has never been known for smart life choices. Nick has this stupid wide smile that lights up the room, which everyone knows Dylan is a sucker for. See: ill-advised, short-lived relationship with Mitch Marner (don’t fuck your divisional rivals, kids). So Nick is the kind of guy with an easy smile and an unexpectedly sharp sense of humor that catches Dylan by surprise every single time. It’s a lot, but Dylan’s dealing, okay?

They’re sitting by the pool by the apartment complex pool when Latts, out of nowhere, says, “Nick, you need a fuckin’ girlfriend. It is my mission in life to get you a girlfriend.”

Dylan shifts uncomfortably in his chair. Obviously, there is no way for Mike Latta to know about his big unrequited crush on Nick so it’s not like he’s trying to rub it in his face or anything. Still fuckin’ sucks.

“Umm… What brought this about?” Nick asks.

“I dunno, you’re a good looking dude. I’m bored. We should go out and get you laid,” Mike says.

“Why am I the only one getting this treatment?”

“Dylan doesn’t look like he’s interested in getting a girlfriend,” Latts answers. Which, fair, Dylan is super gay even if Latts doesn’t know that yet. Nick does, so if Latts ever does decide Dylan looks like he needs a girlfriend, Nick can help intervene.

“Don’t involve me in this.” 

“Oh no, you are getting involved. Wingmen are important. You look like you make a good wingman.” 

Which, also fair. Whenever he would wingman for Connor, girls seemed to inherently have the sense that Dylan was Very Much Not Interested in them that way and friends not looking to get hit on always happily hung out with him while Connor flirted, badly. 

“Ugh, fine. But neither of us can like… go to bars,” Dylan rolls his eyes.

“There’s a university here. Easy to get fake IDs, bud.” 

“You already have them don’t you?” Nick asks.

“Yup.” 

Dylan pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. This is his life. These are his friends. He’s stuck in the desert, surrounded by idiots. 

Three days later they are in a college bar near University of Arizona, drinking cheap booze facing out from the bar. Mike keeps pointing at girls that keep sneaking glances at them. One girl’s, a thin blonde - because of fucking course - eyes linger on Nick a little longer than the others and Mike goes, “That one,” and nudges Nick towards the group. Dylan watches and sighs. He knows this will go well for Nick. He’s a good looking guy, a pro athlete, and funny as fuck. It’s fine. Dylan can deal. He turns back around to the bar and orders another shitty beer. Five minutes later, Nick comes back over with Blonde Bombshell and her two friends in tow. Mike starts flirting with a short brunette and that leaves Dylan with the tall dark haired girl.

“So,” she says. “My friends are here to hook up and I am very not.”

“Me neither.” Dylan laughs.

“Oh thank god,” she says. “I’m Jen. I got dragged here against my will so my friends could get laid.”

“I’m Dylan. And same. This is… Not my scene.” 

“Even if I didn’t have a girlfriend, this wouldn’t be mine either.” 

Dylan laughs. Maybe he’s found a potential non-hockey friend. He could use one of those. “So Jen, what do you do?”

“I’m an exercise science major at U of A. What about you?”

“I play hockey. That’s about it.” 

“Really? Cool. I’ve never been to a hockey game before but my girlfriend is a big Coyotes fan.” 

“Oh, awesome. It’s a great organization to play for.” 

They chat for a while and it turns out Jen is a big country music fan, likes to golf, and has a similar taste in bad reality television as Dylan. Before he knows it, they’re exchanging numbers and talking about golfing one afternoon in a few weeks before midterms get started. He’s glad he came out. Dylan needs a friend who isn’t a hockey player and who he can maybe be honest about being gay with. He misses having friends who know. 

Nick brings Jen’s friend Courtney home that night and Dylan goes to bed alone and not bitter. 

***

Nick goes on exactly two dates with Courtney before ghosting. She seemed nice enough but apparently not what Nick is looking for. The next girl he brings home sticks around for four dates. She’s a brunette with bright blue eyes who reminds Dylan a bit of Mitch. She’s funny. Dylan kind of wishes Nick would keep this one around. She’d probably make a cool friend.

Nick keeps bringing home girls as the season goes on. All pretty, and increasingly more brunette, with brown eyes. Nick always said he preferred blondes but he’s almost exclusively dating girls with brown curly hair. No one ever lasts more than two weeks. It’s annoying. It’s frustrating and Dylan would really fucking like it to stop, thank you very much. He calls Jen to go golfing to take his mind off of it.

They go golfing together once a week. That’s honestly the best part about Arizona, golfing in January is clutch. He could get used to this warm weather all year thing. He misses the snow in Mississauga and Erie but he can get over it. Golf, all year. It’s gold. And Jen is just as awesome as she seemed the first time. She’s funny and smart. She’s safe because she doesn’t know hockey so Dylan doesn’t have to worry. Her girlfriend, Melissa, does, but she seems chill and since she’s dating someone as awesome as Jen, Dylan’s at least a little inclined to trust her. 

They’re around the ninth hole when Jen gives Dylan a long look.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, you seem kind of down. What’s going on?”

“My roommate keeps hooking up with different girls and it’s driving me crazy.”

“What, like Tinder dates?” 

“Yeah. They never stick around for more than two weeks. It’s been a parade since just before Halloween.”

“Are you a little jealous?” 

“I mean, maybe? I’m like, I haven’t hooked up with anyone in a long time.”

“Little lonely?” 

“Maybe. And I…” Dylan reaches up, rubs the back of his neck and sighs. “I like someone and he’s fucking straight because I am an idiot.”

“Having a crush on your roommate blows, huh?” She leans on her club and looks at Dylan, thoughtful.

“I never said it was Nick.”

“Dylan, it’s friggin obvious to anyone not wearing Straight People Goggles.” 

“Straight People Goggles?” Dylan laughs. “I like it.”

“The heteronormativity is strong in sports my friend. I mean, it’s strong everywhere but it’s extra strong where you are. Trust me, Nick hasn’t noticed.”

Dylan sighs again. “I guess. I just am kind of at a loss as to what to do with myself? I wanna get over it but it’s hard living together. And it’s way too far into the season to move out. So… I’m not even really sure what to do here?”

“It’s time to get you on Grindr, buddy. I can’t believe you haven’t before.”

“I don’t know. Erie wasn’t the place and for a lot of the time, I had a semi regular hookup in the league. So, I like, didn’t need it?” 

“Well then, as soon as we’re done here, we’re setting you up an account.” 

“Okay.”

They finish up their round of golf and head back to Jen’s.

“Hey Melissa, I’m home. I brought a friend with me. Please don’t freak out.” Jen calls into the house. 

A short girl with wavy red hair rounds the corner, “What the fuck, Jen? Why would I…” She stops when she sees Dylan. “Oh my god.”

“Do not freak out.”

“I’mnotfreakingoutwhywouldIbefreakingout?” Melissa’s face is turning red and Dylan suppresses a laugh.

“Breathe, babe. This is my friend Dylan. He’s here to get away from his roommate for a few hours and set up an online dating account.”

“Hi. I’m Dylan,” He sticks out a hand which Melissa takes awkwardly and shakes. 

“I’m… I’m Melissa and I’m umm. I’m sorry can I talk to my girlfriend for a minute?” She grabs Jen and pulls her into the other room.

Dylan can hear some whispering. He doesn’t listen in but catches his name, first and last, along with “future” and “Roadrunners” and “so cute”. Jen and Melissa walk back in a few minutes later. 

Melissa sticks out her hand and says, “Starting over. Hi Dylan, I’m Melissa. I am kind of a fan but I’m cool, I promise.”

“Hi. I hope you don’t mind me just coming over.”

“Oh it’s no problem. I’ll just, um. Let you guys hang out and do your thing.”

“It’s cool. You can hang out with us.” Dylan trusts Jen and she and Melissa have been dating for like 4 years so he’s inclined to trust Melissa. 

“So what’s up guys?”

“Dylan is having some dating problems so we’re setting him up an online dating account.” Jen is being very careful about giving away the gender of who Dylan might be interested in.

“I’m kind of in love with my roommate and I need to get over it so we’re setting up a Grindr account.” If Melissa is surprised by Dylan’s clear admission that he’s gay, she doesn’t show it. Dylan appreciates this. 

“Okay, cool. I take great pictures so I will happily make you look good. But first let’s see what you’ve got.” 

“I’m a little hesitant about like putting my face out there because people are dicks. I get that this isn’t really a hockey town but still.”

“Okay, well how about this one and we crop it.” Melissa points to a picture of him by the pool. He’s smiling and you can see his abs. Abs are good. Dylan likes abs so it’s safe to assume other guys like abs too. It takes them about a half hour to set up the rest of his profile, selectively leaving out anything about hockey but including his love of golf. Jen kind of spends the whole time watching and laughing. 

Dylan thinks he’s made a new friend. He likes Melissa. She knows who he is and is being cool about it. He has a feeling he’ll be spending a lot of time at this apartment in the future.

***

Grindr is… interesting. Dylan gets a lot more dick pics than he expected. He’s not like here for that but at the same time that is the entire point of the app so he doesn’t know why he expected any different. After wading through the mountain of penises, he’s got a few messages that look promising. He immediately rules out the guys named Mitch and Nick. Too close for comfort, but Chris has a nice message and a nicer smile.

Dylan responds. “Hi, how are you?” He gets an answer almost instantaneously.

_“good you?”_

_“Pretty good just got back from the gym.”_ Fuck. Why did he say that now he seems like a dumb bro which, like, he probably is but that’s not the vibe he wants to put out there when he’s first talking a to a dude.

 _“cool, you work out a lot?”_ Chris sends back.

 _“have to, part of my job.”_ He doesn’t want to tell this guy he’s an athlete so he doesn’t say anything else so he adds quickly, _“what do you do?_

 _“junior at u of a.”_ There’s a pause and then, _“i’m on the baseball team”_

 _“i love baseball im a bluejays fan, haven’t really followed college though”_ This is good. They have something to talk about if they hang out. 

_“i grew up a mets fan lol”_

_“maybe i’ll have to check out some college baseball. Do you follow any other sports”_ Dylan kind of really hopes he doesn’t follow hockey.

_“football and basketball. You?”_

_“Same, and hockey”_

_“I never got into hockey, no one in my family really watched it”_

Dylan breathes out a sigh of relief. He thinks Chris seems pretty chill and wants to hang out with him.

_“do you wanna like meet up?”_

_“yeah :)”_

They set up a coffee date for the next day. Dylan calls Jen and when she answers says, “I got a lot of dick pics. Like a disgusting amount of dick pics.”

“Dude, it’s a hookup app, what did you expect?”

“Not to get that many penises. I did get a date though.” He’s smiling. It’s honestly the first time he’s going on a date since he realized he was gay at 17. He’s a little shy about that but it’s not like he didn’t have a steady hookup in the O that carried over to summers. They were something but never something. 

“Good! Tell me about it?”

“His name is Chris, he’s a student athlete at your school. He likes pretty much every sport except hockey.”

“Awesome.”

“That’s pretty much all we talked about. I figured I would save the rest for our date?”

“When are you going?” 

“Tomorrow,” Dylan is smiling. He’s kind of excited.

“Okay, Melissa and I are coming to help you get ready. She said she doesn’t trust you to pick out an outfit.”

He ends up in a slightly tight black t-shirt and jeans. He feels hot. Letting Melissa pick out his outfit was a good idea. When he gets there, Chris is sitting at a table by the window. He sees Dylan, smiles and waves. He already has Dylan’s cup of coffee waiting so Dylan slides in across from him. 

“Hi,” Chris says smiling. He’s really handsome in person, far more than his picture on Grindr showed and Dylan’s just a little flustered. 

“Hi,” Dylan says, blushing.

Coffee goes really well, they have a lot in common and they linger over a second cup for what is two hours but feels like minutes. They have a lot in common besides being athletes. Chris is a big country music fan. He makes fun of Dylan for being a “bandwagon” Pats fan. Chris is a Giants fan. He grew up in the suburbs of New York. 

At the end of the date, Chris kisses him on the cheek and asks him for another. Dylan agrees readily. He’s kind of excited about this guy and he didn’t think of Nick once during their entire date.

The second date goes better than the first and Chris kisses Dylan in the car when he drops him off at the apartment after. It’s a nice kiss. A little softer than Dylan’s used to. They agree to meet up again later in the week. Batting cages, Chris’s idea. 

Every date is great and after a couple of weeks of low level making out in the car, Dylan invites Chris in. The sex is as fantastic as the kissing and Chris doesn’t leave right away. He actually stays the night which is very new for Dylan and something he rather enjoys. It’s a little awkward while they adjust to get into comfortable positions, slotted together. Eventually Dylan takes big spoon because he’s taller. He falls asleep with his nose pressed in Chris’s hair. It’s nice.

When he wakes up the next morning, Chris is still snoring softly. He untangles himself and heads to the kitchen. He is pulling out the stuff to make breakfast, the only meal he can reliably cook, when Nick walks into the kitchen stretching, a slip of skin creeping out from under his shirt and why?

Why does it have to be like this? Dylan has a very nice, handsome, funny guy in his bed but here he is a little weak in the knees for Nick fucking Merkley. He pushes it down, annoyed. 

“Cool, breakfast,” Nick says. “Make me some?” 

“Sure, we’ve got enough for three.”

Nick stops in his tracks where he’s been shuffling towards the coffee machine.

“Three?”

“Yeah, I um... I brought someone home last night. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“What do you mean you brought someone home?” Nick is glaring and Dylan is confused. Nick’s brought home plenty of girls this season so it’s a bit of a double standard. 

“Yeah. I’ve been seeing this guy for a few weeks and he came home with me last night.”

“You should have fucking asked, Dylan.”

“What do you mean I should have asked? You’ve had a parade of girls in here and never once asked me.” Dylan’s honestly pissed. This is such a double standard. Nick has been traipsing girls through the apartment since October and Dylan has never once complained to Nick about it. He says as much.

“It’s just…” 

“Don’t you dare say it’s different because it’s not. Just because he’s a guy…”

Nick makes an annoyed grunt. “That’s not what I’m saying. You know what, fuck it, I’m going up to Latts’s place. Bye.” He stomps across the room, shoves his feet in his shoes and leaves. 

Dylan just stands in the kitchen, fridge door still open, stunned. Well that sure was something. He shakes it off. There’s a cute boy in his bed and he’s going to to use the one cooking skill he has to impress him. He finishes pulling out the ingredients and then makes pancakes and bacon. When’s done, he walks to the bedroom to find Chris sitting in bed stretching. 

“Morning,” Dylan smiles. 

“Morning. Mmm, smells good in here.” Chris climbs out of bed, pulls on a shirt, and pads over to kiss Dylan and take the cup of coffee. It’s pretty great, as far as Dylan’s concerned but the Nick thing is still bugging him. It’s shitty, but he’s got to focus on the good stuff, and Chris is definitely, definitely good stuff. 

After Chris leaves Dylan calls Jen. “So I got in a fight with Nick this morning.” 

“Really? What about?” 

“He was pissed I brought a guy home. Like, what the fuck? He’s known I’m gay for years? Like, he has literally walked in on me making out with a guy. What changed?”

“Oh Dylan,” Jen laughs. “He’s into you and he just doesn’t know how to deal with it.”

“How do you know?”

“Dude, I’m over your place literally all the time. I see the way he looks at you.”

“You’re wrong but whatever.”

“I’m not wrong.” 

“He’s fucking straight, Jen. And I know he’s straight so just trust me, he’s not into me.”

“Okay, whatever you say,” Jen says, placatingly. “Now tell me how your night went.”

Dylan launches into the story of how great the night went and how nice it was to wake up to someone. He almost forgets about Nick except for this little, niggling seed of doubt Jen’s placed at the back of his mind. 

***

Nick brings home a new girl, Lynn. She’s tall, slender and long limbed with curly brown hair and brown eyes. She’s nice and funny and Dylan actually rather likes her. She sticks around for more than two weeks and Dylan guesses Nick might actually be settling down a little. It’s… fine. It’s fine. Dylan has a boyfriend so Nick is allowed to have a girl that’s a friend that he’s been on like 10 dates with, which he guessed means in Nick-land, is his girlfriend since they never stick around this long. 

One night, while Nick is out with Lynn, Dylan is hanging out with Latts on the couch. 

“You know, she kind of reminds me a lot of you, man,” Latts says, out of kind of nowhere.

“Who?” 

“Lynn. She reminds me of you. Nick is dating, like, girl you.”

“What?”

“No, hear me out. She’s all tall and skinny like your lanky ass. She’s got the same sense of humor. Maybe Nick is like secretly gay for you dude,” Latts is laughing.

“Shut up.” 

“Come on, I’m kidding.” 

“It’s not nice to joke about people being gay, man.”

“What’s your deal?”

“ _I’m_ gay, Mike. I’m gay. So yeah, it’s really shitty to make fun of people for being gay.” 

“I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m not making fun of him. I’m just saying his girlfriend is a lot like you. He’s dating girl you.”

“Okay, whatever man. It’s fine. Let’s just… watch the movie.” Dylan is done talking about it. It’s not fair to like, rub it in his face that Nick likes him enough to date a girl like him but would never like him enough to date _him_. It’s fine. He’s moving on. 

“I have a boyfriend. Just so you know,” Dylan tells Latts. “He’s pretty chill.” 

“You should bring him around sometime. The guys would be cool.” 

“Yeah, well Nick wasn’t and he already knew I’m gay so.” 

Latts stifles a laugh. “Well, that sure is something.” 

Dylan doesn’t really get what he means. It’s fine. He’s got Chris, who is nice, and funny, and gets what it’s like to be a gay athlete. He’s got something good so he’s let Nick go, or whatever.

***

A couple weeks later, Lynn breaks up with Nick and he’s really upset about it. Dylan comes home from a date with Chris to find Nick crying into a pint of Ben and Jerry’s like every rom com stereotype Dylan’s ever seen. 

“What happened?” Dylan asks as he sits next to Nick on the couch.

“Lynn broke up with me.” 

“What? Why? You guys seemed solid?”

“She said...” Nick sniffs. “She said it seemed like I had my heart set on someone else? I don’t even fucking know what that means?” 

“I’m sorry buddy, this sucks,” Dylan leans in and gives Nick a hug. It’s a little bit hard to hug the guy you’re in love with as they’re crying about someone else.

 _Wait,_ Dylan thinks. _Fuck. I’m in love with Nick. Why do I have to be in love with Nick?_ Dylan is frustrated and mad at himself because why did he have to have this revelation now, while he’s awkwardly hugging Nick, and really, why did he have to have this revelation ever? He really likes Chris, but it’s probably not enough and it’s really, really not fair to Chris to use him to get over someone else. He knows what he has to do, besides suffer about Nick in silence so he texts Chris about meeting for coffee in the morning. He agrees.

They meet at their usual coffee place. Chris slides in across from him.

“Chris…” Dylan starts but trails off awkwardly.

“It’s not you it’s me, right?” Chris smiles wryly. “It’s alright, Dyl. I kind of knew this was coming.”

“I’m sorry. I really like you but…”

“You’re in love with him.” 

“Fuck, yeah. I’m really sorry. I wish I didn’t because you’re a great guy but, it is what it is.” 

“Hey, it’s okay. I kind of knew this was coming. Look, I’m going to go. I really like you Dylan, but you’re doing the right thing. It’s been a fun couple of months. Good luck.” Chris takes his hand and squeezes it. “Bye.” And with that he leaves.

Dylan sits there kind of just stunned that he actually did that. He texts Jen who meets him 15 minutes later and slides in across from Dylan. “Sorry dude. This really sucks.” She buys him a big brownie and they sit there quietly sharing it while Dylan processes. Jen’s a good friend.

Dylan goes back home and spends the next couple weeks quietly trying to move on from both Chris and from Nick but Nick just won’t let him. He’s just, he’s always around and he’s stopped dating around so it’s just him and Dylan all the time. Not the best way to get over someone but Dylan is very much trying to deal.

***

It all comes to a head at the season ticket event and Nick is stapled to Dylan’s side, even more so than usual. He keeps touching him. It doesn't seem to matter that they're in public and that there are fans around. It's making Dylan crazy. It's bad enough that he's around all the time and Dylan can't let go of his feelings but this this is just too much.

A person in their live stream says, “Nick, just let him live his life,” when Nick chirps about being on the live stream too long. And God there has never been a statement Dylan gets more. _Nick, just let me fucking live_ , he thinks a little bitterly. 

When they get home, as Dylan fills a cup with water in the kitchen, Nick walks behind him and brushes his hand along Dylan’s back and that's it. That's the last straw. He just can't take it anymore.

“Can you just stop touching me for like five minutes?” Dylan practically shouts. 

Nick takes a step back, mouth gaping. “I thought you liked…” 

“Well I don't,” Dylan interrupts. “So fucking back off for five seconds and let me deal.”

“Let you deal?” 

Dylan turns and looks at Nick. His eyebrows are knit together at the center. 

“Yes. Let me deal. Let me try to move the fuck on.”

“What do you mean?” The furrow between Nick's brows deepens. 

“Can you really not know?”

“Know what?” 

Nick has to be stupid or willfully blind to have missed Dylan’s feelings.

“I like you, Nick. I like you a whole fucking lot.” 

Nick’s brows unknit and his mouth is hanging open.

“How could you not have recognized?” Dylan sighs, defeated and looks down at his feet. Nick's probably going to go find somewhere else to live. It's fine. Maybe it will make him easier to get over. 

But then… but then Nick is there, in front of him, gently touching his face and tilting it so they're eye to eye. They stay like that for what feels like an eternity but can't actually be more than a minute and then Nick is kissing him, soft and hesitant. Dylan leans into the kiss, wrapping one arm around Nick's waist, the other coming up so he can tangle his fingers in Nick's hair. It's still soft, and pretty chaste when they break apart. 

“I didn't know you were into guys.”

Nick chuckles, “Neither did I. But you're just. God, Dylan, you are so much in all the best ways.”

**Author's Note:**

> Mike Latta likes to pretend he tried to get Nick to date girls so he would realize he liked Dylan. Mike is a big fat liar.
> 
> Jen and Melissa are way cooler than all of us. I wish I was friends with them.
> 
> Chris finds a nice guy who is not in love with his roommate. He and Dylan text and are good friends.


End file.
